The invention concerns a coin-operated automatic entertainment machine comprising a gaming device and a central control device.
Automatic entertainment machines are set up in various forms. They are developed as gaming equipment with or without the possibility of financial winnings, as pin-ball machines with so-called flippers, as billiards, or equipment where darts are thrown, as video gaming devices, or the like. Already various measures have been achieved, to attract the user or player to the use of the various kinds of entertainment equipment, and to assist him to achieve a real corresponding entertainment during his period of play.
An automatic entertainment device is known, for example, from DE-38 22 636A1. This entertainment apparatus consists of a gaming unit having a gaming symbol device.
Gaming symbol devices have as a rule three rotating bodies which can take the form of drums, discs or carousels of flapping cards. Winning symbols are carried on surfaces which can be viewed through a window. The rotating bodies are stopped one after another, and after all have come to rest, the combination of symbols displayed in the viewing windows define a win or a loss. Different levels of prize winnings can feature money, points or special playing privileges. Such privileges could include a victory code, which would grant a higher than normal chance of a win. Many such gaming devices have actuating means such as touch buttons or levers for the player. These actuating means as a rule produce some effect on the movements of the individual rotating bodies. By these means the player is put in the position of being able, for instance, to start one or more of the bodies in the case of a START touch button, whereby the player can have a pronounced effect on the events taking place during the game. Also there are stop buttons installed, in order to give the player the possibility to halt one of the rotating bodies, which gives the player the impression that the course of play, and consequently the resulting combination of symbols displayed, can be influenced by him.
With such a gaming equipment, the real course of the games is controlled by a microprocessor. Moreover, preliminary or auxiliary games can be provided which run independently of the main gaming device and have a different character from the main play. For instance as a preliminary game a light spot can run around a circle, which simulates a roulette wheel. According to how the light spot comes randomly to rest, the player receives a greater or lesser sum of money credited to his account which has been set up in the gaming machine. These preliminary plays establish a variation, in that they raise the excitement and the recreational value of the gaming appliance. A disadvantage of this known form of gaming apparatus is that the preliminary game is only operable if the player inserts higher valued coins in the machine.